Justice News

Remlap Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison for String of 2012 Armed Robberies

BIRMINGHAM -- A federal judge today sentenced a Remlap man to 25 years in prison for a string of armed robberies in northeastern Jefferson County in October 2012, including one in which a store customer was shot. U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance, FBI Special Agent in Charge Roger C. Stanton and Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent in Charge Steven Gerido announced the sentence.

U.S. District Judge Karon O. Bowdre sentenced JAMEY LEE MATTHEWS, 41, to 25 years in prison, in accordance with a binding plea agreement Matthews entered with the government. The judge also ordered Matthews to pay $202,000 in restitution for medical expenses to the man he shot, and $6,000 to the stores he robbed.

Matthews pleaded guilty in October 2014 to four counts of robbery under the federal Hobbs Act, which involves robbery affecting interstate commerce, one count of armed pharmacy robbery, and one count of discharging a firearm during a crime of violence.

He committed the Hobbs Act robberies at Mike's Quick Stop on the Pinson Valley Parkway on Oct. 11, 2012, Dollar General in Trafford on Oct. 15, 2012, Winn Dixie supermarket on Old Springville Road and Roger's Gas Station in Clay, both on Oct. 19, 2012. He committed the armed pharmacy robbery at Tyner's Pharmacy on Chalkville Road in Birmingham on Oct. 15, 2012. Matthews discharged a firearm during the robbery at Roger's Gas Station.

According to Matthews' plea agreement, he brandished a firearm during all the robberies, but fired a gun as he ran out of Roger's and employees and customers from the gas station chased him. A customer was struck five times and testified during the sentencing hearing that he still has two pellets in his hip.

Authorities charged Matthews with the robberies after he was found, seriously injured, beneath a remote bluff in Remlap on Oct. 20, 2012. After he was flown to UAB for treatment, Blount County Sheriff's deputies found a pick-up truck at the top of the bluff that was registered to Matthews' mother, according to the plea agreement. Four firearms, a customer's check written to Roger's on Oct. 19, and pill bottles from Tyner's Pharmacy were found in the truck. Ballistics tests later matched shell cases recovered from the Roger's robbery to a Rossi .410-caliber shotgun found in the truck, the plea agreement says.

The FBI and ATF investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney John B. Felton prosecuted.